A modern home features a plethora of electronic devices. For instance, a home entertainment system may include electronic media devices such as a digital flat-screen television, an audio sound system, a gaming system, and a media server, all of which are loosely tied together via a central component, such as a media set top box (STB) or audio/visual (AV) receiver. Aside from the home entertainment system, a typical household may have various electronic consumer appliances such as a home security system, a home fire system, a home automation system, and smart consumer appliances. Meanwhile, each family member may have various electronic computing and/or communications devices, such as a notebook computer, a smart phone, and portable audio device, with a few desktop computers thrown into the mix. Some or all of these electronic devices may have networking capabilities, thereby allowing these devices to form an ad hoc home network via a wireless router.
Several major design considerations come along with this highly diverse and largely heterogeneous set of electronic devices. First, these electronic devices are typically made by different manufacturers, and as such, have limited native interoperability. Second, each electronic device typically requires a separate user interface to navigate and control functionality provided by a given device. Third, while some electronic devices may be somewhat configurable to suite an individual user, many of the configuration operations are manual in nature requiring a user to consciously program any desired options.
Accordingly, there may be a need for improved techniques to integrate a large set of heterogeneous electronic devices into a single integrated system with enhanced navigation capabilities and automated configuration services that solves these and other problems.